Official blog of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Have your rights violated, defend your family, get the death sentence

Hot talk in the blogosphere is the case of Corey Maye of Prentiss, Mississippi. For a ton of detail on the case, check out TheAgitator.com, but I'll summarize it. On December 26, Prentiss police planned a midnight raid of Maye's next door neighbor with whom Maye shares a duplex. The police thought that the duplex was a single unit and busted into Maye's home, too. Maye was asleep and at home alone with his 18-month-old daughter at the time. Thinking that there was an intruder in his home, Maye opened fire on the first police officer who came into his bedroom and killed him.

In January of 2004, a jury of 12 Mississipians convicted Maye and sentenced him to death.

Here is TheAgitator.com's original post on the case, which includes more detail about the raid, the jury's motivation (which is just bizarre), and the inconsistencies in the story the police told.